The abortion sonogram legislation that passed the Texas House and Senate requires a doctor to perform a sonogram on a woman at least 24 hours before she has an abortion. During the sonogram, the doctor must describe the fetus or embryo; the woman can choose whether she wants to see images from the sonogram or listen to the heartbeat. Victims ...

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott just released two opinions that could very well force Planned Parenthood out of the state's Women's Health Program, which provides family planning, but not abortions, to Medicaid patients.

The controversial abortion sonogram bill has passed the Senate 21-10. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, got the two-thirds vote needed to bring it to the floor, effectively ensuring it would pass. The bill hinged on the two-thirds vote to suspend the rules and bring it up, because lawmakers aren't simply split along party lines: A couple of anti-abortion Democrats support it, and one Republican opposes it on civil liberties grounds. The vote in the Senate was key to this legislation, because the overwhelming Republican majority in the House makes it likely to breeze through that chamber.

This week's episode of the TribCast features Evan, Ross, Ben and Matt going over the "super-majority" in the Texas House and how that could lead to federal court challenges, the coming Census numbers, the Howard/Neil election fight and the public ed budget battle.

Is it possible for a pro-choice candidate to win a high-profile statewide Republican primary in Texas? Susan Combs might try. Combs, who served two terms in the Texas House, two as state agriculture commissioner and just won a second term as state comptroller, is considering a run for lieutenant governor in 2014.

For the latest installment of our nonscientific survey of political and policy insiders on issues of the moment, we asked whether a Republican who supports abortion rights can survive a high-profile primary, whether the sonogram bill on the governor's emergency list addresses a real or a political problem, whether that bill will pass, and what other issues of interest to social conservatives might win approval from this Legislature this year.

Abortion politics is back on center stage, with Gov. Rick Perry putting it, voter photo ID, state support for a balanced federal budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, eminent domain and a ban on sanctuary cities at the top of his list of priorities. Why?

State Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, wants Planned Parenthood's clinics out of the state’s Women’s Health Program, which provides family planning services — but not abortions — to impoverished Medicaid patients. He says a 2005 law should exclude them already. But for years, the state’s Health and Human Services Commission has allowed those clinics to participate, for fear that barring them might be unconstitutional. Deuell has asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to clear up the matter, hoping it will free up the agency to push Planned Parenthood out.

Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, wants the attorney general to decide whether a Texas family planning rule — one that bans the state's Women's Health Program from contracting with clinics that "perform or promote" abortions — is constitutional.

State health officials have pulled guidelines allowing abortion facilities to use pre-recorded telephone messages to provide informed consent to patients off of their website. They said concerns raised by Rep. Frank Corte, who is seeking an AG opinion on the matter, "may have merit."

In their first and probably only televised debate, Bill White sounded experienced, as you'd expect of a three-term mayor of Houston, while wealthy hair care magnate Farouk Shami was more passionate, more animated, and much more prone to political mistakes.

Hu explores on the schism between Bushworld and Perrywold and the increasingly curious question of what Debra Medina wants; Stiles goes all Shark Week on gubernatorial campaign finance, with searchable databases, bubble maps and word clouds; M. Smith on what happens if there's a GOP runoff; Rapoport on the sniping between Perry and KBH on transparency; Hamilton on KBH's abortion issue odyssey; Ramshaw exposes the disgracefully low percentage of state school employees who abuse or kill profoundly disabled Texans and are then prosecuted for their acts; Thevenot on higher ed's tuition time bomb; Aguilar on the Latino pay gap; Ramsey on Farouk Shami's "gift" to Hank Gilbert; Ramsey and Philpott on the the Supreme's Court's corporate campaign cash fallout; and E. Smith's interviews with House Speaker Joe Straus with retiring Republican state representative — and future Texas State chancellor? — Brian McCall. The best of our best from January 18 to 22, 2010.